The End of the Universe Is Live-Streaming E-commerce – CH9

Chapter 9: The 9th Day of Livestream Selling

Afraid that Lin Zhao would go back on his word, 1114 wasted no time projecting a virtual screen into the air for its salted-fish host. Supposedly, there were even more convenient operating methods, but considering Blue Star people’s usage habits, it still recommended that the host adapt gradually in the early stage.

The moment Lin Zhao tapped the lottery icon, the floating light screen before him suddenly changed. It began flickering like a brilliant galaxy, and then looked as if a deep black hole had formed into a massive roulette wheel, spinning continuously at the center of the screen. Its speed gradually increased until it turned into a dazzling purple whirlpool of light.

And then…

The familiar Kaman appeared once again.

Yes. He had drawn a duplicate region.

Lin Zhao was impressed in spite of himself. “Did your mainframe used to make gacha games? Do you want to add a pity system too?”

“How did the host know?” 1114 praised in surprise. “There is one. After ten draws, you’re guaranteed to get a region with a code of A-rank or above. A-rank people are super rich, and they’re also extremely powerful. I’ve forgotten exactly how they’re powerful, but anyway, they’re very, very powerful. Oh, right. After the beginner period, every draw costs ten thousand transaction points.”

So, ten thousand per draw?

Lin Zhao was so angry he laughed. Why didn’t they just go rob people? A guaranteed pull for one hundred thousand—cash-grab otome games were not even as good at robbing money as them.

1114 hurriedly added, “But beginner draws only need three pulls for a guarantee. Isn’t that a great deal?”

Although he did not know how powerful this A-code region was, and although he clearly understood that this “only three pulls for a guarantee” sounded more like a tempting promotional tactic, damn it, he was still tempted.

After all, something other people needed to spend one hundred thousand to draw, he did not need to spend any money on.

Then continue.

The starry sky flowed once more.

This time, it was a burst of golden light representing five stars. Although it was the expected guarantee, this feeling of lucky European energy still made people very happy. Only, after the golden light, what Lin Zhao saw was no longer the familiar card page from before, but a transparent crystal fragment that looked like a star.

“What is this?” Lin Zhao raised his hand. If he did not understand, he would ask.

1114 looked even more excited than Lin Zhao. “What is this? This is a fragment of [???]!”

The familiar censorship arrived late but arrived all the same. Lin Zhao had already been harmonized into having no temper, and only asked, “Then can you see the rank of this censored region?”

The atmosphere had already been hyped up to this point by Brother System. He wanted to see just how lucky he could be.

1114’s explanation was so incoherent that it had the beauty of someone who had drawn this fragment and was about to eat delicious food, drink spicy liquor, and reach the peak of life.

Only, it said far too much and far too messily. Lin Zhao worked very hard before barely sorting out a portion of the key information:

The mainframe divided different regions into five ranks: A, B, C, D, and E. E-rank was too primitive to connect to, so there was no need to mention it. D worlds were war-torn regions like Kaman. An A world might be something like a Nordic high-welfare society, at least in Lin Zhao’s understanding.

And [???]…

Was SSS.

Lin Zhao: So I drew China?

*

Plane Number: 005.

Codename: Eternal Conqueror.

Civilization Level: Galactic civilization, already infinitely close to cosmic administrator.

Civilization Type: Combat composite type.

Status Overview: The Yasa people are a race of lunatics famous throughout the universe, natural-born weapons of slaughter, praised as the end of war. Their civilization spans multiple galaxies and is one of the strongest known warlike species. They resound across the cosmos for frequently producing individuals with SSS-level mental power, as well as for their entire population’s astonishingly beautiful appearance.

Mainframe Evaluation: Dangerous! Dangerous! Extremely dangerous!

*

Imperial Mothership, Goddess of Disaster.

This ship, resembling a small planet and given by the current emperor of the Yasa Empire to his full-blooded younger brother as a birthday gift, was now hovering at the edge of a newly dead stellar civilization in an almost absolutely still posture.

Just seventy-two standard hours ago, the native civilization of this star system—a life alliance that had preliminarily mastered stellar energy and attempted to establish a Dyson cloud structure—failed in its evolution.

The three habitable planets within the star system were vitrified overnight. After the remaining native inhabitants were evacuated in an orderly manner, all artificial structures were reduced to cosmic dust.

The entire star system went from bustling noise to deathly silence. Regulators had been installed on both of its only two stars, and their energy was gradually being extracted and fed into the mothership’s reactor.

Executive Adjutant Carlos, wearing rimless glasses, had a solemn expression. Dressed in a standard silver-black imperial military uniform, he was now standing on the ring-shaped bridge outlined by metal and flowing light, quietly watching.

Behind him were floating cursors and a star map that flickered in and out like breathing.

Theoretically speaking, this first adjutant by the prince’s side should have been monitoring everything outside the huge curved observation window to ensure that the goal of this trip was proceeding in an orderly fashion.

It would have been even more convincing if his optical computer, which he had forgotten to switch to internal playback, had not been broadcasting:

“As everyone knows, the most important thing in their lives is not becoming stronger, but finding their destined lover—the one and only lover. Some people are very lucky and find them with one lift of the eyes on their mother planet. Others are very unfortunate and cannot meet them even after exhausting their entire lives. They can extinguish a star with a single thought, yet cannot locate their other half in the vast sea of stars…”

Slacking off at work was inevitable, even in the interstellar era.

“Cough.” A crew member risked their life to remind him.

But it was already too late. From the shadows of the cold white cabin walls walked a tall, extremely oppressive silver-haired young man.

Behind him, there were no flashy warning lights, nor noisy and complicated communication sounds. There was only the low background hum of immense energy flowing through equipment operating near absolute zero, and outside the window, the magnificent nebula undergoing the final turn of its life.

The cold and stern-looking young man was likewise dressed in an immaculate silver-black imperial military uniform. The tailoring was as simple as possible. The only difference was that on the left side of his chest, there was a dark-gold diamond-shaped crystal faintly glowing, symbolizing royal blood.

Prince Reinhardt, Duke of Ishtals, controller of the imperial mothership.

He looked expressionlessly at his capable assistant, who was also his best friend from the Imperial Military Academy.

“Listening to novels at work? That free?”

Silence was the Cambridge of that moment.

Before the adjutant could organize the language he would use to quibble with his friend, the optical computer that had chosen the key moment to fail him—and for some reason could not be turned off no matter how he tried—was still broadcasting unhurriedly:

“…The expansion and conquest history of the Yasa star system, rather than being caused by battle instincts carved into their DNA, is better described as a desperate Marriage Notice enlarged to the scale of a galaxy.”

Reinhardt raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms.

It seemed he had wrongly blamed his adjutant. This was not listening to a novel. This was listening to someone’s foolish and presumptuous commentary about their star system.

His voice was slow and forceful. “I assume this is our next attack target, and you are conducting preliminary research?”

“It was slacking off. It was laziness. It was setting a wrong example.” Adjutant Carlos immediately stood at attention, gave up resistance, and admitted his mistake. “I should not have casually judged that, simply because we had already been working continuously at high intensity for seventy-two standard hours, there should be no danger at this time and everyone could relax a little. I will go to Inspector General Astraea later and report myself for punishment, voluntarily requesting double penalties!”

He did not dare mention a single word about the video, but between every line was: Please, I’m begging you, let go of the treasure blogger I finally discovered. I’ve really liked watching his videos lately. He was just making a joke. Our public opinion department isn’t just for show either.

In Reinhardt’s violet eyes, billions of stars were reflected, yet there was not the slightest warmth, because he did not find this joke funny at all.

He had just finished mental power training—not to improve his strength, but to suppress it. To suppress the soul-deep emptiness that, as time passed, not only had not weakened, but had instead become increasingly clear and painfully sharp.

He was a standard 3S mental power user frequently produced by the Yasa, the sharpest sword of the empire, and at the same time, an unfortunate person who still had not found his destined companion.

Although he did not feel there was anything unfortunate about himself at all. He even scoffed at it, believing that so-called destiny was nothing more than an ignorant ancient tradition.

In the suffocating silence, Adjutant Carlos finally turned off his favorite gossip video, but the uncooperative optical computer immediately auto-played the next one.

—“Explosive news! It is rumored that the Alliance’s ‘Far-Watcher’ Array has made a new discovery. At the end of the third spiral arm of the Laniakea Supercluster, in a barren region once judged by pioneer teams to be incapable of nurturing civilization, a brand-new planet has appeared. It has already entered its protection period and possesses a massive population far exceeding seven billion.

“We once again have more than a two-digit number of provisional new members. We hope they can all smoothly pass through their dangerous evolution period and officially join the big family of the Universal Alliance.

“…Of course, the happiest party should be none other than a certain star system we cannot name, right? Will this complete yet another century-long fated bond for a certain alien race after their bitter search? Let us wait and see!”

Not a single sentence mentioned the Yasa Empire, yet every sentence was about the Yasa Empire.

As one of the five strongest civilizations in the Universal Alliance, the beautiful, powerful, and not-at-all-miserable Yasa Empire was an absolute guarantee of traffic and popularity. Even though the empire’s style had always been domineering, it still could not stop some people from harboring lucky thoughts.

“Yes, the Alliance has discovered another civilized planet. Its temporary number is E-9721c,” Adjutant Carlos’s heart was already dead. This optical computer simply could not be shut down, so he could only keep his voice as steady as possible and pretend this was an introduction report.

“The star is stable, and the planet is located in the habitable zone. There is carbon-based life. Its civilization stage…”

He paused for a moment, seeming to search for a more accurate description.

“Early primitive electrical-information age, or it may be defined as the embryonic form of an intra-planetary civilization.”

“They have only just begun trying to explore their own satellite. Their methods of energy application are crude and inefficient, and their social structure shows astonishing fragmentation and low cooperation,” His Highness Reinhardt commented.

His purple eyes swept over the parsed images of human cities, vehicles, and weapons testing sites. His expression was like that of someone observing ants building dirt mounds, and his tone held not the slightest ripple.

“—I have no interest in this sort of remote and backward planet.”

The meaning behind his words was: You had better make up a better explanation for me.

But what else could Adjutant Carlos make up?

If not for the matter of etiquette when facing a member of the royal family, right now, he only wanted to smash this mad optical computer right in front of Reinhardt.

Even more despairingly, the optical computer began automatically playing the next-next video. It even directly projected it into the air.

And before His Highness Reinhardt could say something he would regret for the rest of his life, within that image of unclear quality and somewhat blurry sound appeared the brilliant radiance of the sunrise, the glittering waves of the sea, and Earthling Lin Zhao’s brief, casual glance back.

Author’s Note:

Nonsense Mini Theater:

Prince Reinhardt: The video wasn’t even that good. I only watched it back and forth a few hundred or a thousand times.

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